1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle charging system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an in-vehicle charging system which is connected to an external power supply to charge a battery in a vehicle such as an electric vehicle (EV) and a hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and which displays a charging condition by being connected to a controller via a communication line (LAN, CAN, or the like) mounted in the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
A vehicle such as an electric vehicle (EV) and a hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is generally provided with a display or charger that displays an end time for recognizing a charge completion time.
The charger may include a display for displaying an estimated time required for completing charging of a battery. The estimated time is displayed with a light that changes color.
Such a charger is exclusively designed to detect a state in the process of charging the battery based on a passing current or the like and to display it.
The charger mounted in the vehicle converts AC power supplied from the outside to DC power of high voltage by AC/DC conversion and supplies it to a high voltage battery. At this time, an EV controller, which is an internal controller stored in the high voltage battery, mainly controls a charging condition of the high voltage battery.
The EV controller also performs total control by communicating with a plurality of internal controllers and obtaining information relating to voltage, current, temperature, and the like.
A charge completion guiding system for an electric vehicle disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-158133 includes a device which calculates a time required for charging and a portable device having an acquirer that acquires charge completion information and a notifier that notifies the charge completion information.
The system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-158133, however, is required to be exclusively designed for communicating the time required for charging, which is required to be improved.
Also, a place for mounting the charger in the vehicle as described above is limited depending on various conditions. Thus, the display is generally required to be provided separately.
Since the vehicle includes a meter grouping that groups various displays (meters, indicators, or the like), display can be performed by using the meter grouping. The display can be provided in a meter for displaying information relating to charging with multi-displays (liquid-crystal both sides) stored in the meter.
However, even when information to be displayed is decided (i.e., a time required for completing charging of a battery), a general charger integrated with a display is not adapted to implement a communication process.
Even when the display is separately provided, processing content and communication data for every device are not particularly decided until final display is performed. Accordingly, they are required to be set and facilitated.
When the EV controller has a structure for calculating a charging end time based on charging content, remaining battery level, or the like, a meter for displaying it by communicating with the EV controller is required to be capable of data communication of the charging end time separately from the data such as the remaining battery level. Thus, a system relating to such communication becomes complicated and its versatility is reduced.
When different battery capacities are provided in the same vehicle, individual components cannot be commonly used in the case in which the components are exclusively designed for each model. Thus, mass production effect is unfavorably reduced.